Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 11
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Afghanistan's official entry into the ranks of countries participating in the program of cooperation in transport field TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) was postponed for an indefinite period, Akif Mustafayev, national secretary of TRACECA on Azerbaijan told Trend Jan. 11.
Resolution of this issue depends on the agreement between Afghanistan and Iran, according to him.
"Azerbaijan in this regard makes everything possible for Afghanistan. We have not only supported the accession of Afghanistan to the Basic Multilateral Agreement of TRACECA, but applied to Iran on this issue. Iran gave its consent to it at the 11th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission in Istanbul in Jan. 2015, and it was reflected in the final declaration," Mustafayev said. "However, the parties afterwards apparently didn't work out the issue to the end, and we have not received an official note from Tehran in support of Afghanistan's entry to TRACECA."
These issues are resolved on consensus by all countries participating in the project, he noted.
"All countries have already given their consent to the entry of Afghanistan. We only expect receiving Iran's decision. I think the Afghan diplomatic services should work on this matter directly with Iran in order to pursue the case to the end," he added.
Afghanistan, along with Iran (based on the consent of the then 12 members of the program), was admitted to TRACECA's membership in 2005 at the 4th conference of the Intergovernmental Commission.
Iran ratified the entry to TRACECA and soon became a full member of it. However, the ratification process was delayed in Afghanistan.
TRACECA is an international program of cooperation in transport field between the EU and its partner countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. The organization has a permanent secretariat in Baku.
Currently, TRACECA's member countries are: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Iran and Armenia.
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